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Is the phrase "have overweight" from England/Australia/a largely English-speaking country?
Countandsubtract
Posts: 276 Member
This question is primarily for native English-speakers from outside the United States:
Only in the last couple of months have I come across sentences like "I have overweight."
Typically I've seen "overweight" used as an adjective, not a noun. ("They ARE overweight.") If someone wanted to say that someone had too much fat on their body, they would have said "excess weight" or "excess fat."
Is this a recent change or is it just that I wasn't exposed to the phrasing through US media? (Is it the typical phrasing of the concept in Australia or somewhere?)
I've heard the phrase "she's poorly," which wouldn't be the typical US phrasing for "she's not feeling well." I wonder if "have overweight" might have a similar history.
Most of the times that I've seen it are from the same source, so it's also possible that the particular writer is influenced by another language.
Was it an intentional change to the language?
I don't know if I'm expected to change my phrasing or if doing so would cause employers to question my fluency in English.
I'm not as much looking for a debate as an answer, but this seemed like the closest category.
Thanks!
Only in the last couple of months have I come across sentences like "I have overweight."
Typically I've seen "overweight" used as an adjective, not a noun. ("They ARE overweight.") If someone wanted to say that someone had too much fat on their body, they would have said "excess weight" or "excess fat."
Is this a recent change or is it just that I wasn't exposed to the phrasing through US media? (Is it the typical phrasing of the concept in Australia or somewhere?)
I've heard the phrase "she's poorly," which wouldn't be the typical US phrasing for "she's not feeling well." I wonder if "have overweight" might have a similar history.
Most of the times that I've seen it are from the same source, so it's also possible that the particular writer is influenced by another language.
Was it an intentional change to the language?
I don't know if I'm expected to change my phrasing or if doing so would cause employers to question my fluency in English.
I'm not as much looking for a debate as an answer, but this seemed like the closest category.
Thanks!
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Replies
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"I am overweight" or "they are overweight" or "he/she is overweight" are what is said in the US...not sure about other English speaking countries. "I have overweight" is probably a typo as that is not an English phrase anywhere that I am aware of.0
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Nope, not correct use of overweight. You were right originally. It’s “I am overweight”, or “they are overweight” or “she is overweight”.
But having said that - what is currently linguistically correct will change over time. I have never heard “I have overweight” but in time it may become popular and thus accepted.
The English language is dreadful to learn as a first language - I take my hat off to anyone who is fluent in it as a second or third language!!1 -
English is not my actual mother tongue, but close enough to it. I'm regularly 'exposed' to both US and UK English (and occasional Australian), and I've never heard 'I have overweight'.
I doubt it's a standard expression anywhere, but perhaps in some dialect?0 -
I don't know, but what you may be seeing is someone who doesn't have English as a first language and is translating the phrase from their language into English. My husband (Italian) tends to do this, and what comes out is--interesting.2
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Glad to know I wasn't the only one. 😊
The English language is dreadful to learn as a first language - I take my hat off to anyone who is fluent in it as a second or third language!!
I know! And we keep changing it and making it worse!
I think that the hyper-connected teens of today will end up creating more slang terms and phrases than the ten generations prior.
If I ever have grandkids I think they'll just say, "Yeah, no thanks, the world will switch to Spanish. English never makes sense."
and what comes out is--interesting.
😊
That reminds me of some interesting google translate results.
Me: something about schools
Google translate: ...apricot...
Me: ?
Sorry, I didn't know this before: After you guys responded, I found these. Not all of livestrong's pages have dates so it's hard to tell if this changed over time, but the titles and the address titles don't match, so I think they made some alterations later on...
https://www.livestrong.com/article/333266-im-overweight-can-i-build-muscle/
I Have Overweight: Can I Build Muscle? | livestrong
https://www.livestrong.com/article/526121-does-being-overweight-make-you-tired/
Does Having Overweight Make You Tired? | livestrong0 -
I agree with the above commenters, but just wanted to add that "she's poorly" used to be heard in the U.S., at least regionally to mean "she's not [feeling] well."2
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There are a lot of things in the english language where we say "I am <adjective>" that in other languages are expressed as "I have <noun>" such as in spanish. If they are non-native english speakers, they may be translating word-for-word from their primary language.3
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..(some common examples translate as "I have hunger" versus "I am hungry", "I have X years" versus "I am X years old",..)3
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A variation of it was used on Gilmore Girls once. Lorelai said that her dad "has weight" meaning that he is overweight. It was so odd of a phrasing that I still remember it a couple of years after I watched the episode. That's the only time I have ever encountered that phrase being used.
As to answer your question, the recent usage might be part of the general linguistic trends that are supposed to reduce stigma around health conditions. Instead of saying "She is autistic" or "He is an addict" now you're supposed to say "She has autism" or "He has an addiction." The idea behind this is that it's considered to be less stigmatizing and less like you're defining the person by their health conditions.. However the problem is that sometimes this can get very clunky, like with "has overweight."0 -
I can has cheezburger?6
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siberiantarragon wrote: »As to answer your question, the recent usage might be part of the general linguistic trends that are supposed to reduce stigma around health conditions. Instead of saying "She is autistic" or "He is an addict" now you're supposed to say "She has autism" or "He has an addiction." The idea behind this is that it's considered to be less stigmatizing and less like you're defining the person by their health conditions.. However the problem is that sometimes this can get very clunky, like with "has overweight."
Actually that's not what you're "supposed" to say at all. You're supposed to listen to the person who will tell you what they prefer. To some, saying 'autistic person' is insulting, to others saying 'person with autism' is insulting. From what I've seen, person-first language (so person with X) is being pushed on people by well-meaning and sometimes not so well-meaning "allies" who forget to respect the person. It's a big debate and you can google it yourself but I just wanted to point out a lot of autistic people hate being called people with autism and that's true for many other people as well so don't assume person-first language is the norm right now, or even something everyone wants to work towards.
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English person here. Definitely not a phrase we use and would strongly suggest to me that the person who is using it is not a native speaker.
We use "I am overweight."1 -
@lynn_glenmont
Interesting. In settler times or pretty recently? I'd imagine in colonial times, at least, american English would have been pretty similar to european English.
@ritzvin
Yeah, the first time I saw it, that's more or less what I was thinking. The lack of a commonly-used single-word noun, equivalent to the adjective, doesn't really make that formula easy to use. I could see how that would happen. (We usually say "excess weight."...but now that I think of it "I have excess weight" would actually sound nearly normal.)
(Yes, I added commas where there shouldn't be any, but I added them where I would have paused verbally. I hope the commas make it easier to follow.)
@siberiantarragon
Ahh, Gilmore Girls! Although as I recall, they "broke English" for comedic value quite often. (Yet they never really finished the plotline with the barista...(sigh))
supposed to reduce stigma
Very possible, and I think your word "clunky" hits it right on the head.
@siberiantarragon & @bojaantje3822
I think those are definite possibilities, and yes, I've noticed that what the government and corporate policies tell us we're "supposed to" say are rarely acceptable or respectful to the people the words are applied to. I've definitely seen that particular push towards adjectives as well... I wonder where some of these phrases come from anyway...
Page is glitching again...I'll continue to respond a little later!0 -
@naturallykat
Yay! I'm glad to get input from an additional dialect. I didn't want to make assumptions just based on my own experiences.0 -
@mtaratoot
Good plan,
"I made you a cookie, but I eateded it."
You'll need your energy
"Da dog livez heah furmanently nao."
As for myself,
"I'm going completely organic and will grow my own food"
(The cat has a bunch of baby hampsters on it.)
Sorry for going low tech. I've downloaded too many apps.
1)https://www.firedog.co.uk/thinking-space/news-opinions/grey-matters/the-history-of-the-internet/
2)https://www.pinterest.com/pin/320811173453562804/
3)https://cheezburger.com/91268746240 -
Posting from Australia. Where ' I have overweight' is no t a phrase I h ave ever heard spoken or seen in writing.
There was a fad of deliberately using wrong grammar for effect on memes and such, saying things like ' I have sads' - so perhaps 'I have overweight' was used in that way too.
Or is a translation from a person with english as a second language.
If you travel through Asia you often see signs translated into not quite right English - one of my favourite was in a clothing store ' women have fits upstairs'
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Pet peeve that's used all the time:
Pre-registration required.
So... What am I supposed to do before I register? Because it should just be registration required. You can't register after an event has occurred. Even "advanced registration required" doesn't work. "Register before June 22" works.2 -
bojaantje3822 wrote: »Actually that's not what you're "supposed" to say at all. You're supposed to listen to the person who will tell you what they prefer. To some, saying 'autistic person' is insulting, to others saying 'person with autism' is insulting. From what I've seen, person-first language (so person with X) is being pushed on people by well-meaning and sometimes not so well-meaning "allies" who forget to respect the person. It's a big debate and you can google it yourself but I just wanted to point out a lot of autistic people hate being called people with autism and that's true for many other people as well so don't assume person-first language is the norm right now, or even something everyone wants to work towards
Ok, that's not what the discussion was about though. I was just explaining why this type of phrasing might be used, not my personal opinion on whether it's good or not.
But you seem to be interested in my personal opinion on the matter: so as someone with various health conditions, I find the whole language policing thing to be a waste of time and would rather those resources be put into more useful advocacy. I think this endless debate over language allows people to pat themselves on the back and think that they are doing something helpful when really it doesn't solve any of the problems that people with chronic health issues actually deal with.6 -
Countandsubtract wrote: »@lynn_glenmont
Interesting. In settler times or pretty recently? I'd imagine in colonial times, at least, american English would have been pretty similar to european English.
Well, this is a little embarrassing, but when I think of the "she's poorly," in my head I hear Irene Ryan saying it in her role as Granny on the 1960s sit com "The Beverly Hillbillies." So, "pretty recently" (at least compared to settler times) television scriptwriters thought that people in some geographically unspecified (at least, I don't think they ever indicated exactly where the Clampetts were from), extremely remote rural areas used the phrase.
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It certainly indicates they were aware of the phrase in a time before the world was quite as excessively conected (with high speed internet on mobile devices).
Cool, thanks for the follow-up!0 -
I'm a Canadian-Australian an have never heard the phrase "I have overweight" used by Canadians or Australians.
The only circumstance I may have heard something like that is when someone who does not speak English well is attempting English.0 -
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Seems like a reasonable guess, but I don't think it was ever explicitly stated.0 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »
Seems like a reasonable guess, but I don't think it was ever explicitly stated.
It may not have been. There's oil there though. And for sure not too many decades before the show there were lots of "Okies" migrating to California to escape the ravages of the Dust Bowl. It is so sad we lost so much soil because we didn't know any better. Now we're losing soil in our forests from devastating wildfires. There was a fire on the Payette River, I think around 2000, that was so hot it actually vaporized the forest soil and sent it to the sky. What was once a lush forest is now just rocks. So sad.0 -
"Jed and Elly Clampett lived close to Bug Tussle near Branson, Mo, Missouri Ozarks. Granny who was Jed's mother in-law, moved from Tennessee to live with Jed and Elly. Pearl and Jethro Bodine lived a short distance from the Clampetts in Arkansas. The old truck sits in a museum at Point Lookout, Mo. just south of Branson. Various towns and locations in both the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks are mentioned in many episodes."2
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Hiawassee88 wrote: »"Jed and Elly Clampett lived close to Bug Tussle near Branson, Mo, Missouri Ozarks. Granny who was Jed's mother in-law, moved from Tennessee to live with Jed and Elly. Pearl and Jethro Bodine lived a short distance from the Clampetts in Arkansas. The old truck sits in a museum at Point Lookout, Mo. just south of Branson. Various towns and locations in both the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks are mentioned in many episodes."
Source? Sounds like copy to attract tourists to Branson.0 -
I’m. It sure where this comes from, I’m in the US and I don’t use it, my first thought is that it maybe comes from the HAES movement, in that being overweight does not define a person. For example instead of saying I am fat, I have fat. However I have overweight is not correct grammar, so it reads and sounds off.
I don’t know if this is the case though, it’s just where my head went with it.
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Just went through the thread. Nothing to really add other than I'm still trying to wrap my head around the brits "in hospital" as opposed to "in THE hospital", the Beverly Hillbillies theme song is now stuck in my head, and marry *kitten* kill Jess, Dean, Logan?0
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lynn_glenmont wrote: »
Seems like a reasonable guess, but I don't think it was ever explicitly stated.
In the show's pilot a narrator says, "let's take take them back to their home in the Ozarks and see how this whole thing got started." Paul Henning, the show's creator was also from Missouri. I'm not weird or anything, I only know this because my 93y.o. grandmother owns the entire series and as a good grandson I've sat down and watched more times than I can count. There are other references to the Ozarks in other episodes as well.
There are other hints though. The theme song starts with, "Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed." There are definitely no mountains in Oklahoma for which to be a mountaineer...there are barely even hills. The term hillbilly is generally also used to describe the mountain people of the Appalachians and the Ozarks, often derogatory. The accents and dialect are also stereotypical Appalachian or Ozark and very distinct and not really found anywhere else. Oklahoma definitely doesn't have anything close to that kind of accent or dialect.
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lynn_glenmont wrote: »
Seems like a reasonable guess, but I don't think it was ever explicitly stated.
It may not have been. There's oil there though. And for sure not too many decades before the show there were lots of "Okies" migrating to California to escape the ravages of the Dust Bowl. It is so sad we lost so much soil because we didn't know any better. Now we're losing soil in our forests from devastating wildfires. There was a fire on the Payette River, I think around 2000, that was so hot it actually vaporized the forest soil and sent it to the sky. What was once a lush forest is now just rocks. So sad.
No mountains in Oklahoma to be a "mountaineer".0
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